Ortelius' Theatrum orbis terrarum - From the Father of Modern Atlas-Making

From the Father of Modern Atlas-Making - THE MARTELLI EXAMPLE ORTELIUS, Abraham (1527–1598). Theatrum orbis terrarum. Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana, 1612. Here is what AI says it’s worth: $237,500. Cost: Christie’s, 06/21/2013 - $75,000. Folio (16 13/16” x 11 9/16”): A-C6 D-E4 1-1282 [6s $4 signed, 4s $3 signed, 2s $1 signed; –A1]. With an engraved title-page (and the full-page engraved arms of Philip III of Spain verso), engraved epitaph of Ortelius, full-page portrait of Ortelius by Philippe Galle and 128 double-page map-sheets, each with text verso; all colored by hand. Bound in modern panelled calf gilt. On the spine, five raised bands. Author and title gilt to the second panel. Gilt roll to the edges of the boards. Some scuffs, bumps and rubbing to the extremities. Marginal worming to the preliminaries, just touching a letter or two. A little tanning and soiling throughout. Some discreet repairs to the map-sheets, with a replaced loss to the upper fore-corner of 691, not affecting the text or the plate. Armorial bookplate of the Martelli family. Lacking the Parergon and the Nomenclator ptolemaicus. Abraham Ortelius (1527–1598) is the father of modern atlas-making; he was the first to gather maps of a regular format systematically into a comprehensive book. From the first edition of the Theatrum orbis terrarum (1570, Theater of the world), Ortelius himself drew or re-drew the maps; unlike most cartographers (before or since) he was explicit in his source material. The Catalogus auctorum, the list of sources for his maps, has in the present edition grown to 183 names from 87 initially. Beyond the maps, Ortelius provides apposite text — in the present item in Latin, but he also published Dutch, German, French, Spanish and English — on the verso of each map-sheet, an eminently useful idea imitated by Braun & Hogenberg and a great many others over the following centuries. The publication history of the Theatrum is nuanced, but can be simplified into five “expansions” of the original edition (issued with 53 maps): the 1573 expansion (70 maps), 1579 (93 maps), 1584 (112 maps), 1590 (134 maps) and 1595 (151 maps). The 1609 edition (of which the present edition is an exact reprint except for the title-page) is called “the most complete” (VdK-K sub 31:054) because of Plantin’s revision of five plates and the fullest complement of preliminary material. The present copy, lacking the Parergon (πάρεργον, Appendix), which contains maps of antiquity, both real and fictional (the itinerary of Aeneas in Vergil’s Aeneid) and the Nomenclator ptolemaicus (Ptolemy’s monitor), which is a sort of gazette of the place-names in Ptolemy’s Geography, is consequently somewhat less so. This must have been a rather common fate, however. The Martelli family of Florence (motto: “Sola Virtus Vera Nobilitas,” virtue is the only true nobility) amassed, by the mid-XIXc, one of the great private libraries in Italy. The family was closely allied with the Medici, and various Martelli vied with that family for patronage, including of Desiderio da Settignano and Donatello. The bookplate is XVIIIc in style, and is sometimes associated with Giuseppe Maria Martelli (1678–1741), who was Archbishop of Florence from 1722–1740. Van der Kroegt-Koeman 31:055; Shirley 122 pl. 3, state 1 (“Typis orbis terrarum”).

Estimación:€156,485.17

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